Who Is Parakala Prabhakar? (image - twitter/parakala)Dr Parakala Prabhakar, husband of former finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman is a leading political economist and social critic. Prabhakar in his book “The Crooked Timber of New India” has openly stated that he sees his duty as a citizen of India to point out the wrongs committed by the Modi regime. He expressed his opinion by writing in several columns for the renowned newspaper and never took a step back in criticizing the Modi government and its policies.
Prabhakar, a former communication adviser to the government of Andhra Pradesh has always hit the headlines due to his stance that the Hindutva forces are fundamentally antithetic to the Indian republic. “We may soon hear the dog whistles from the ramparts of the Red Fort”, Prabhakar cautioned during an interview with Mathrubhumi.
Prabhakar for several years has presented current affairs discussion programmes on the television channels based out of Andhra Pradesh. His programmes included Pratidhwani on ETV2 and Namaste Andhra Pradesh on NTV. Being born into a prominent Telugu Brahmin family in Narsapuram, Prabhakar’s mother has been a member of the Legislative assembly. His father Parakala Seshavatharam was a long-time legislator from Narasapuram and served three successive Cabinets in the state of Andhra Pradesh in the 1970s and early 1980s.
In the early 2000s, Prabhakar served as the official spokesperson for the BJP before joining the Praja Rajyam Party. Prabhakar was one of the members signed for the formation of PRP and a few days later in September 2008, he was appointed as the official spokesperson of the Praja Rajyam party. Not more than eight months, he quit the party stating it to be a “poisonous tree”.
As for his educational qualification, Prabhakar completed his doctorate from the London School of Economics. He did his Master of Arts (MA) and Master of Philosophy (M.Phil) from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi.
Prabhakar in his book strongly criticized and slammed the Modi government saying it has ruined the economy, democracy and secularism. He repeated his criticism that poverty, unemployment, and national debt were mounting while the ruling dispensation was in denial mode.
Pointing out the absence of a Muslim minister in the Modi government and the saffron party’s refusal to field candidates from the minority community in the election Prabhakar said that the BJP has made it clear that minorities in the country are not needed.